Dad’s birthday is this month, and I've found myself thinking back to January two years ago. Back then we were happily living our lives oblivious to what was already beginning to happen. Few people knew what COVID 19 was, let alone the misery it would create. We had no idea the storm that awaited us or how difficult and devastating the next two years would be. But as I remember that birthday, celebrating it with Dad, Mom, their friends from church, and my boys, I’m so grateful for the time we shared. The memory of that birthday party, of Dad having fun playing his favorite games, of us laughing together as the two of us teamed up against everyone else for Pictionary, that was a gift from God. And it helped carry me through the dark days of COVID when Dad’s survival hung in the balance. Even today I look back on that moment with deep gratitude.
I hope that you, too, can look back at something God has given you in the past—a memory, a verse, a picture, a moment frozen in time—something that He has used to remind you of His faithfulness. In the Bible in I Samuel 7:11-12, God gives His people victory over their long-time enemies the Philistines. To commemorate this event, the prophet Samuel sets up a stone calling it “Ebenezer” which means “stone of help” and saying, “Thus far the LORD has helped us.”
Looking back, I remember that birthday party with Dad as an Ebenezer moment. God does not give out Ebenezer moments often, but when He does, they are something that we can look at over and over again to remind ourselves that even in the midst of a changing world, we are held securely by our faithful, unchanging God.
Opmerkingen